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Post by Mister Buch on Nov 20, 2014 3:41:34 GMT 1
I'm thinking about e-publishing (self-publishing) a short book. You can put your stuff on Amazon - they take a large cut of any profits and you get the rest. From what I can tell it seems to be gaining popularity with the occasional big success story, but mainly it's just a money-making function for Amazon. (I guess iTunes does a similar thing too?) Anyway, our absent member Knightfall1138 did this - and his book was brilliant by the way! He made a handful of dollars but did get his name out a little bit. So now I want to steal his idea and do the same thing with a short book I wrote. I even got Lieden to donate a painting for the front cover - I am just a ripping-off-more-talented-members-of-this-site machine. ---- So before I stumble blindly into this - does anyone know anything about this e-publishing business? Any advice, any 'don't do it, do this instead', anything like that? A lot of members here seem much more savvy than me so I thought I'd ask.
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Post by jklinders on Nov 20, 2014 11:57:58 GMT 1
I wish I had some kind of glittering insight to offer but the articles I found were barely better than useless at best and ads disguised as articles at worst.
Consensus seems to be that if you are going to self publish you need to network among others who have done this and market it yourself. you've got a couple of good contacts there but should expand on them. For example, I would see no reason why you could not promote your work here. There are not that many Google hits here but more than you would have already had. 'Chantress' writing group and Lieden's magazine contacts may be of use as well. The fact that you have to do all of your own promotion is literally the only thing bad about doing this though. There are fewer upfront risks, lower sales but higher royalties. E-publishing is a growing not shrinking area so i would not worry too much about market share.
That's all I got and like those articles I read barely better than worthless.
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Post by Mister Buch on Nov 20, 2014 12:14:02 GMT 1
That's good, man. Encouraging. Cheers. My goal isn't too lofty here - making money is simply not in the plan. I'd just like a few more people to notice my name, and to be able to link to a fancy looking little thing you can buy with a nice front cover. Eh?
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Post by Mister Buch on Nov 25, 2014 1:01:16 GMT 1
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Post by Lily Ariel Linders on Nov 25, 2014 3:20:52 GMT 1
What if I don't have a Kindle? I have a Kobo - not quite compatible with Amazon's book system...
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Post by Mister Buch on Nov 25, 2014 12:02:14 GMT 1
Ah, I wouldn't know about that I'm afraid! This version can also be read on your PC as well as Kindles.
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Post by Warhammer Gorvar on Nov 25, 2014 12:27:19 GMT 1
Shared it on my facebooks and I might buy it if I got the dough. November's been a very wallet abusing month for me.
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Post by philscades on Dec 8, 2014 16:35:34 GMT 1
I'd like to point out that you should be wary when dealing with amazon. For one, because they recklessly destroy the book market by forcing the merchants delivering them the books to do so with hefty discount, often enough causing the merchant to either sell the books to amazon under market value Or watch as amazon simply trys to bully one of their colleagues. Secondly, should you ever want to actually see one of your books published as a paperback, which amazon advertises with their own publisher, recently, I've seen experience reports that bookstores refuse to sell books published by amazon. Just as a heads up. The best way to go at it, if you want to go with amazon, and want to do more than just publish on the side, is to use amazon as a platform to catch the eye of a bigger publisher. Of course, that only applies, if you want to do more than publish in e-book form and as a hobby. If you don't then Amazon is quite the only partner with insight into how to handle e-book publishing. And you'll have to do all the advertisement on your own, as was said before.
So long, hope I could provide you some insight, Phil Scades
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Post by Mister Buch on Dec 8, 2014 19:48:01 GMT 1
Aye aye, I hear you about Amazon. It is just, as you said, a hobby for now. But don't worry - I've been warned away from them by a few people!
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Post by philscades on Dec 10, 2014 18:30:17 GMT 1
It's sad that the big publishers are so slow to react to the rapidly growing e-book market .... They could so easily set up a e-store and even provide a self-publishing platform. It doesn't cost much to provide the platform if all the advertisement and publishing is left to the author. They wouldn't even need to provide the filetype as anyone can create an e-book .... At least in the USA, the publishers are starting to react. Though that is forced by their mainly decimated book market. Here in germany, e-books aren't even yet fully treated as books, per law. And the publishers are slow to provide e-books. So long, Phil Scades
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flaneur
Serviceman 3rd Class
Posts: 1
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Post by flaneur on Dec 19, 2014 14:14:06 GMT 1
Have you had a look at Smashwords.com?
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Post by Mister Buch on Dec 21, 2014 3:18:57 GMT 1
I haven't! I am the worst promoter ever. I will do in the New Year - -have a serious look at Goodreads and Smashwords and see if I can sell a few.
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